ABOUT TOM'S TOWN

We named Tom’s Town Distilling Co. after the country’s most corrupt political boss, Tom Pendergast. Pendergast started as a saloon keeper and the founder of a wholesale liquor company.

Under Tom, Kansas City ignored Prohibition and emerged as the “Paris of the Plains.” Money, jazz, and spirits flowed in the open. When asked how he justified ignoring Prohibition, Pendergast quipped, “The people are thirsty.”

Today the people are still thirsty. Tom’s Town satisfies that thirst by producing premium craft spirits. You can taste our high standards and attention to detail in every sip of the gin, vodka, and bourbon we make.

1934

Kansas City Museum Archives

1934

1934

1935

According to KC’s Future newsweekly, “there are more nightclubs in Kansas City per capita than in any other city. Three hundred or more clubs, saloons, hotels, joints and dives – a numerically impressive collection – gives Kansas City its reputation as a ‘hot, wide open town.’”

1935

1939

US Attorney Maurice Milligan forces Pendergast to plead guilty to income-tax evasion. The judge sentences He is sentenced to 15 months in the federal prison at Leavenworth, halting his political machine.

1939

Maurice M. Milligan, Missouri Waltz, 1948

1940

After reformers take over, many residents missed the way Kansas City was. The downtown slot machines were trucked away. The jazz clubs lost their crowds. The cleanly operated city was no longer “Tom’s Town.”

1940

2015

Inspired by family connections and a love of drinking, Steve Revare and David Epstein found Tom’s Town Distilling Co. Steve’s great uncle was Maurice Milligan, the attorney who sent Pendergast to prison, and David’s grandfather was Herman Epstein, a rival “rabbit” bootlegger to Pendergast.

2015

2016

Tom’s Town opens to the public and begins distribution across the states of Missouri and Kansas, bringing the party back to Tom’s Town.

2016

2017

USA Today names Tom’s Town the Best Craft Vodka Distillery in the US. All four Tom’s Town spirits win multiple industry awards.

2017

2018

The People Are Thirsty! Tom’s Town expands distribution in its quest to become an emerging national brand.